English

Describes how a new aerosol spray technology can allow weatherization crews to seal even tiny duct leaks in places that are difficult to reach using conventional methods.

The airtightness performances of buildings and ventilation systems can have a major impact on the indoor climate (IAQ, thermal comfort,...) and on the energy performance. Measurement results for Belgian buildings clearly show that the airtightness is often moderate to very poor. As part of the proposed energy performance legislation for the Flemish Region, it is envisaged to pay attention to the airtightness of buildings and ductwork. In the first part of the paper, results found for Belgian buildings and systems are briefly presented and discussed.

The main problem in natural ventilation is that its efficiency depends very tightly on the meteorological conditions : high wind velocity and outside temperature lower than inside are optimal conditions for efficient ventilation. Consequently, air renewal inside buildings is very fluctuating from one moment to another, and extreme comportments can be reached from one season to another : in winter, ventilation is usually very satisfying, whereas in summer unwanted reverse airflows can hardly be avoided.

Ventilation plays an important role in the RT 2000 regulation. This new French thermal regulation takes into account energy for heating and lighting through a C coefficient (primary energy in kWh), as well as summer comfort for non air-conditioned buildings. The paper focuses on the calculation of the C Coefficient. For the ventilation side of it, the calculation method aims both to have simple input data and physically based algorithms. The fact that it was chosen to have a computer based approach made this possible.

The aim is to develop a new method for comfort in settings with high thermal load in buildings that do not require continuous cooling but cooling only during shorter periods. Example of such buildings is schools. The present ventilation and control systems are designed for supply of air at a constant flowrate or to respond to relatively slow variations in load or step changes in load. The slow variations in load are mainly governed by the diurnal cycle and sudden step changes in load are mainly due to people entering or leaving a room.

Thermal bridges are the typical locations for moisture and mould problems in buildings. Low surface temperatures in combination with a high humidity level in buildings can lead to severe problems and complaints by the occupants. Thermal bridges lead also to a significant increase of the energy losses in well insulated buildings. At present, thermal bridge problems still frequently occur in new buildings but especially in rehabilitation projects. In several countries so-called thermal bridge atlases already exist.

For over 20 years, the AIVC has been a key player in developments in technical knowledge on ventilation and related issues, and has always been very active in the dissemination of information. Since its creation in 1979, there has been a substantial change in the users' expectations of how information on ventilation knowledge should be disseminated. The AIVC has always tried to adapt its strategies to these evolving needs. In the first part of this paper, a brief historic overview is made. It is followed by a more extensive discussion of our envisaged new approach.

Ventilation performances in existing buildings are not well known, in France. They are not often checked. This paper shows how a method for checking the performance of ventilation could be applied in France. Such a method, mainly based on visual inspections and simple measurements has already been used for years in Sweden. The Swedish method has been tested in France, in collaboration with a Swedish inspector, on different commercial buildings of different sizes and ages : two secondary schools, one primary school, one office building, one hotel and one bar.

The "Intelligent Facade" is seen as a central element in the evolution of building form and building fabric to provice environmental control and comfort. Describes the background of bioclimatic architecture and goes on to give an outline of the subject of intelligent skins for buildings. Provides two examples of the case study review which has been performed.

This paper is an overview of the work carried out during a 3year EPSRC funded project investigating the important factors in Supply Air window design. The structure and some of the main conclusions of this work are presented here. The project consisted of alternating experimental and simulation phases; the experimental results contributed to the model validation, and the simulation outputs provided design guidance for the following experiments.